


Change Of Heart

by lil_1337



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-10-09
Updated: 2006-10-09
Packaged: 2017-11-06 22:20:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/423902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lil_1337/pseuds/lil_1337
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes chance encounters are the things that shape the rest of our lives.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Change Of Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [muffiewrites](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=muffiewrites).



> This started off as a challenge that was set at my feet in [this post](http://lil-1337.livejournal.com/123765.html?thread=889973#t889973). It was supposed to be a drabble or drabblish but the content of the idea was not going to be contained in such a limited format. The first scene required some variation from canon to set the stage and accomplish what was needed. However, the second scene does not. With the exception of one word in one line of dialogue there is no change. The difference lies in what goes on in Heero's head. My rationale is this, his beginning connection with Relena via the little girl did not steer him from his mission therefore neither would a similar one with Duo. I'm never particularly confident with writing Heero or hearing his voice so this was a bit of a reach for me. How this would impact later on down the line with his relationship with both Relena and Duo I have no idea nor do I intend to explore it any further. Hopefully enough of the emotions that need to be there are and it wouldn't change Heero's course of action.

Heero jumped the fence, taking it in a single bound. The first part of his mission was done; the charges were set and ready for him to trigger them. The green of the grass called to him and he ran, not to elude capture, but because, for the moment, his heart felt light. His mission was going well and his confidence in his ability to complete it was high. Planting the explosives was the risky part, but he was sure they would not be detected.

Ahead of him, the ground began to slope and his speed pulled him so he was bent forward. He allowed himself to give into gravity's insistent pull and bent until his body could take no more. Then he fell; half tripping, half somersaulting, to land on his back. Above him, the sky was blue with wispy white clouds. For the moment there was such pleasure in the feel of the grass underneath him and the slowly moving shapes above him. He had time before the next phase of his mission. Time to just be.

He laughed and then startled when an impish face blocked his view. A little girl was standing next to him. She tossed her long brown braid over her shoulder and showed him an infectious grin. "Hi there, are you lost?"

Sitting up, Heero assessed her as a possible threat to his mission and then dismissed the thought. He guessed that she was somewhere between five and eight, unable to narrow it down more as determining the age of little girls was a skill that J failed to teach him. Heero made a note to himself to mention this gap in his education when he returned.

The little girl frowned, her already dark blue eyes shifting to an almost purple color as she looked at him from under her bangs. "I /said/, are you lost?" Annoyance slipped into her voice, clearly marking her as someone who was not used to being ignored.

Still, he did not respond. She stared at him; the only sound was birds chirping as they went about their business. Instead he looked at her, taking in the black long sleeved shirt she wore and the way her black jeans are tucked into worn boots. Her skin was pale with a sprinkling of freckles across her nose.

"I've been lost ever since the day I was born." Heero was not sure why he said the words, and looked away to keep from meeting her eyes. He was not in the habit of confiding in random strangers he happened to meet. In his world, people fell into two categories, enemies and civilians. One was to be eliminated, the other protected.

"Oh, that's so sad."

He turned back to look at her, drawn in by the compassion in her voice. Her face was expressive and showed everything she was thinking and feeling. "Well, I'm not lost at all. I'm looking for a buddy. Do you want to be buddies?"

Heero blinked, startled by the impulsive offer of friendship. No one has ever wanted to be his friend before. He wanted to accept, to be able to say he has a friend, but he knew that he couldn't. His mission came first and besides that, he doesn't even know what the parameters of being a friend are. Research would be required before he could make such a commitment.

A woman's voice floated on the air and the little girl looked up, disappointment on her face. Impulsively she offered him the much used figure of a mobile suit. "Here, I'll give you this." She frowned, her expression serious. "It’s an action figure /not/ a doll. You can be one of the good guys and save all the ladies. That's what I do."

She was gone as quickly as she had appeared. Heero did not see her go since his eyes were on the battered plastic toy in his hand. Carefully, with an almost religious reverence, he tucked it into the waistband of his shorts. He laid back on the grass, again studying the sky, and thought about little girls, friendship, and how he hoped that some day there would be a third category of people in his life.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The metal casing of the explosive tinkled on the floor, drawing the attention of the soldiers on duty. They barely had time to register its existence before it blossomed into a cloud of blinding light and freed energy. In the ensuing chaos, Heero snuck onto the heavily guarded dock. He didn't hesitate, the blueprints he had secured clear in his head. Around the warehouse like buildings, and out to where the controls were for the torpedoes. The launch code along with the necessary passwords had been secured after a few hours of careful hacking. In a large operation like OZ everything was accessible; it was just a matter of knowing where and how to find it.

At the control panel he typed in the primary password and then accessed the menu that would allow him to move bring the torpedoes into position. A secondary password box appeared on the screen and he typed in 'Pi Kappa Phi' and depressed the enter key. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the crane to carry out the commands he had typed in.

"Heero? It is you, Heero." Relena Dorlian. Heero's mind immediately connected a name with the voice. What the hell was she doing here? There was a pause as Heero suspected she was looking around, assessing the situation, but he did not turn to look. "No, Heero, don't do it."

Heero could hear the sound of her slick soled shoes on the metal dock. She was moving towards him. He glared harder at the screen, willing it to complete the task that he had assigned it. She must not be allowed to get in the way of his mission.

"You. What are you doing? Tell me. Just who are you anyway?"

Again, her voice cut into his concentration. He should have killed her on the beach when she saw his face. If the self-destruct in his suit had not failed it would have eliminated both of them. A box appeared on the screen announcing that the task assigned had been completed successfully.

"Those are torpedoes, aren't they? I can tell. I want to know who you are. Talk to me, Heero." Relena's voice took on a more insistent tone, the sound of a spoiled rich girl who wasn't in the habit of being ignored.

"Relena." Pivoting, Heero turned, carefully blocking the screen with his body. She would not be allowed to interfere. Talk to her? No, he would eliminate her. She was a dangerous loose end, one that he had stated he would remove. She had been given fair warning and had chosen to ignore it. It would be her last mistake.

"Heero." Relena smiled, seemly pleased and surprised that she had finally gotten him to respond to her.

The gun in his hand, pointing at her was solid and steady. This time there would be no hesitation. "You're in over your head." His words were flat and emotionless, a statement of fact. Over her head was where she had been from the very beginning. Following him and sticking her nose into places it did not belong, was about to become her final mistake.

Her eyes widened and her lips parted, shock and surprise visible on her face. Had she not believed that he would kill her or was she one of those people who believed in the inherent goodness of everyone? Either way it would soon be irrelevant. It was irrelevant. He cocked the gun and gave her a tight nod. "Say good bye, Relena."

Something flashed past his face and Heero turned, his attention drawn from Relena momentarily. His eyes had not picked out his assailant when a second bullet struck his arm just below the shoulder, knocking him head over heels to land face down on the metal plating. His gun left his fingers, thrown to the side by the force of impact. One small part of his brain registered Relena calling his name, her voice concerned and fearful. The rest was reassessing his position and determining what he should do next.

Bending over slightly, Heero covered the wound with his hand to stem the bleeding if possible. In front of him was a kid about his age. He was close enough that Heero was able to get a good look at him, but far enough away that reaching him before being shot again would be impossible. His eyes took in the kid's slight build; black priest's garb and the baseball cap perched on his head. As he straightened up Heero caught a glimpse of the end of a long braid that showed off to the side in a gentle arc.

"Who are you?" Heero demanded, a scowl marring his features. This kid was not part of OZ. If he were, he would have been in uniform and calling for back up. OZ had procedures and policies that were to be followed at all times.

"It's pretty obvious to anyone that you're the bad guy here." The kid dismissed him, turning his attention to Relena. "Are you alright, lady?" The solicitous tone of his voice was like a shock running through Heero's system, igniting feelings he thought he had buried.

For a split second the kid with the gun disappeared; in his place was superimposed the memory of a little girl. One who had offered to be Heero's buddy and given him one of her action figures so he could be a good guy and protect the ladies. The toy he still carried in his duffle, often pulling it out to look at. Comfort and recriminations were carried in its worn plastic features.

Ignoring the question, Relena's attention focused completely on Heero. She rushed to kneel in front of him, her eyes on his wound. "Heero? Are you okay?"

The sound of Relena's voice pulled his attention to her, breaking the spell that seemed to have settled over him. He had a mission. Just like last time, he had a mission. He knew better than to let anything or anyone distract him. Maximize the damage and do not let the Gundam fall into enemy hands were the only parameters that mattered.

Taking advantage of the momentary look of confusion on the kid's face Heero sprang forward, reaching for his gun. He would do what he needed to and eliminate anyone who stood in the way of destroying his Gundam. A second bullet plowed into his upper thigh, throwing off his trajectory. The gun skittered out of his fingers, coming to a stop farther out of his reach than it had been before.

The kid moved closer, his gun still steady in his hand. His voice was mocking and amused, fully aware he had the advantage and could, as a result, afford to mock Heero just a little bit. "Don't over do it. Remember, you're injured, buddy."

_I'm looking for a buddy. Do you want to be buddies?_

Again, the world swam in front of Heero's eyes for just a split second. A sense of surreal déjà vu washed over him and he shook his head to clear it. Buddy. Friends. Again he heard the creak of servos as the mobile suit fell; smelt the acrid smoke of burning rubber, and felt the vibrations under his feet, as tons of metal met with tons of brick, the resulting explosion lighting up the night as brightly as midday.

NO! Heero shook himself mentally. He needed to focus on the mission. He was trained to do a job and he would do it. The cost did not matter, only the results. Complete what he had set out to do or… He shuddered, not wanting to think about what came after that. He would destroy his suit. There would be no deviation.

Slowly, Heero shifted trying to stand. Unfortunately his leg gave way, tumbling him back to the ground with a grunt of pain. This was not acceptable. He would have to be stronger.

"Stop it! What do you want to shoot him for?" Heero raised his eyes to see Relena standing in front of him, her arms outstretched to maximize the protection she could offer.

"Hey, wait a minute." The kid spoke, the confusion and surprise in his words echoing Heero's emotions. What the hell was Relena doing? Why was she defending him? He was her enemy.

Relena turned and dropped to her knees in front of Heero, ignoring the person at the end of the dock completely even though he was speaking. Tearing off a strip of her dress, she secured it around the wound on Heero's arm, helping to staunch the flow of blood. The guy frowned, watching as Relena ministered to Heero's injury, sighing in a put upon way.

"Great. How come I ended up as the bad guy here?"

Staring at Relena, Heero frowned. Why was she doing this? He had tried to kill her. He still would if it became necessary and yet she had risked her life to protect him. Was she an enemy? Or a civilian? How did he know which way to respond if she did not follow the prescribed patterns of behavior?

There was a beep and the kid looked down, studying what appeared to be a watch, but Heero suspected was actually something much more sophisticated. The kid frowned, looking unhappy. "It's already reached the surface. I must have miscalculated the tide."

Out in the harbor the head of Heero's mobile suit, and another one that he had never seen before, broke the surface of the water. The sun glinted off of wet Gundanium and shattered into rainbow colored pieces. It would have been a beautiful sight if not for the fact that they were weapons of war and destruction.

"What in the world is that?" Relena frowned, confusion written on her face.

White light filled Heero's eyes and he looked away to protect his vision. He registered the whimper that escaped Relena's lips and the way she covered her face with her hand. The light flare that was being held up to block her from seeing the still surfacing mobile suits did its job efficiently. There was no confusion left in the his voice. It was cold and sure. The voice of a soldier with a mission he would see through regardless of the cost; a voice that Heero recognized as being a mirror of his own.

"Don't look, lady. I'm sure you've got your reasons for being here, but you better just walk away. Save yourself a lot of grief."

Pushing aside the pain, Heero forced himself to his feet, shifting his weight to compensate for his injured leg. Squinting, he sighted in on the torpedoes that hung on their support rack where they had been moved into place in preparation for launch. Calculating the odds of taking out the kid with the gun or reaching the torpedoes, he found them to be about equal. The best course of action was to take out weapon then proceed with his plan. He moved, running towards the kid, but at the last minute dodged and leaped up into the air. Justifying his change of heart as being triggered solely by the bullets that bounced off the ground around him not his unwillingness to be responsible for another death.

"You haven't had enough?"

Landing solidly on the torpedoes, Heero threw himself flat as more bullets bounced off the end caps and whizzed through the air around him. There was a brief pause and he lifted his head up just a little so he could see and be seen. "It's /my/ mobile suit."

With that, Heero punched the control panel on the torpedoes, manually triggering the launch sequence that, had he been allowed to remain at the computer terminal, he would have done remotely. Underneath him the metal tubes began to tremble then flew forward with a burst of power. Unable to hold on with his injured limbs, Heero felt himself thrown into the air and then pushed back from the thrust being exerted by the now rapidly moving torpedoes.

"What are ya doing, you fool?" The words were almost lost in the roar of the engines and buzz in Heero's ears. Completing his mission, no matter the cost to himself. That was what he was doing. It was what he was trained to do.

Heero could feel himself falling, his body making an arc up and then inevitably down. Forcing his eyes open, he watched the torpedoes skim the surface of the water. They were on target. It would work. "Finally, everything is finished. Mission complete."

His eyes slipped closed at the sound of the weapons exploding against their target. Letting out a soft whimper of pain that was lost to all but his ears he hit the water. Far off, Heero heard a frustrated wail that indicated that he had been successful. Then mercifully, he felt himself losing consciousness and surrendered willingly to the numbing blackness.


End file.
